The excess of profoundly ambitious British transportation projects continues to enhance my annoyance at the flaccid state of American ingenuity in developing and modernizing human travel. This super-tech concept is inspiring.

Anyone who moans and complains about Facebook privacy has got to be partially brain damaged. But faces are not something we can share selectively – well, unless we go all hijab on ourselves or something…

Google’s broad-spectrum tech development efforts & investment probably excede that of any other private entity. That’s great, but what’s up here? Is cutting-edge technological innovation shifting away from governmental entities? Is that good or evil?

Is it immoral to coercively control human population? Or is it cruel to perhaps implement a form of tied aid where we provide you with food/water/ a goat/etc. if and only if you accept this implant which will prevent you from reproducing for five years?

The always challenging founding editor of Wired magazine talks about the fundamental drive of technology. Sure, it’s nearly two years old, but someone like Kelley is never really “dated…” Don’t know who Kevin Kelley is? You should be, you should be. [VIA VIMEO VIA TEDX AMSTERDAM]

3.5 Days in a in a Lack-of-Data Haze. Last week I had to go do some Japanese-style camping. Skipping the horrific details, suffice it to say, I was outside the stream – I lacked data. Had insufficient information. No place in the global network. Did not like it. Since snatching up an LG-V in 2005, and the soon to follow procession of Blackberries and iPhones, I really haven’t been disconnected. At all. And I like it that way. This really was my first removal since the gradually maturing era of ubiquitous mobile data began gradually maturing. It was a bit surprising [read full post]

“…Lately we have begun to consider the possibility that technology might change us more in a generation or two than evolution has done over millions of years.” The always excellent Economist takes on the issue of transhumanism and the Singularity in a thoughtful and well-rounded piece. I’m hard-pressed to find anything to make fun of here, even coming up with some snarky or cheeky comment is proving kinda difficult. So, just have a read! [VIA THE ECONOMIST]

Do Robots Take People’s Jobs? Q: Let me ask you something: Do computers take jobs? A: That’s a good question. Manufacturing, 3D Printing and What China Knows about the Emerging American Century Q: What a if robotic 3D printer in my garage/neighborhood/city/state can cheaply produce all the plastic parts/units/cloth/everything normally imported from China? A: That’s a good question. [VIA SINGULARITY HUB AND VIA FORBES]

Anthrobotic has previously covered Dennis Hong’s RoMeLa robotics initiative (calling him the Renaissance Roboticist), and now he’s writing for CNN and doing a TED talk, specifically addressing somewhat autonomous driving and feedback systems for blind drivers. Why spend all that effort on a tiny fraction of human population? Well, the blind are obviously the perfect set of humans to test driverless cars for those of us who can see, but, you know, don’t want to pay attention to the road, want to increase traffic safety, and would also enjoy decreased congestion and stuff. As I’ve said before, this guy is [read full post]

Here Kurzweil addresses a laundry list of psychological and sociological questions about the future of human technology and how that currently defines and will come to define our species. Agree or not, it will definitely light a fire in your brains. anthrobotic.com is definitely +1’ing this one. While it’s possible that Kurzweil is severely overoptimistic and overreaching in his proclamations, in evaluating his position two things are certain: one should not listen too carefully to the non-scientists or those who criticize from outside the field (like, for example, robot hater and closeted homosexual Senator Tom Coburn – that sub-reference never [read full post]

Sometimes you’re on a corporate-sponsored press tour to get up-close and personal with the history of calculators and then you casually walk into the next room and BOOM! …suddenly you’re surrounded by the taxidermied carcasses of our technological ancestry.

This week China’s probably pretty pissed that India’s going to add Japanese bullet-train tech to cart, which is ironic since Chinese bullet train tech IS Japanese (ZING!), it’s extra confirmed that Apple’s going to finance Japan Display’s new factory, and lastly, you may insert a lame pun here about how consistently under-performing & money-losing Sharp is anything but. Read me!

This RX-78-2 Gundam model is huge and imposing and badass, and while Anthrobotic does not necessarily endorse the consumption of anime, Anthrobotic endorses the shit outta visiting Tokyo Bay to get some 60-foot-tall robot in your life.

This week it’s the JTFFS talking about makeup and beauty products and the one thing Whitey’s got plenty of which is not a balanced diet or regular exercise or a positive residual self image, but skin tone! And then it gets sleepy weird…

This week we find out that Apple is likely to invest in Japan Display, the bastard child of Sony’s, Toshiba’s, and Hitachi’s floppy failed display businesses that, post-amputation, did a Wonder Triplets: ACTIVATE! move into profitability, and, entirely kinda unrelated, the de-displayed Hitachi has unveiled the world’s most powerful microscope and Sony’s commissioned it to look for their fiscal 2014 profit margin!

Next to Team SCHAFT’s new Google overlords withdrawing them from further competition, the poor showing of NASA’s Valkyrie robot might have seemed the DRC Trials’s biggest disappointment, but it’s nowhere near that simple: NASA JSC and the Florida Institute for Human and Machine Cognition (IHMC) are keeping the flame alive, and by flame we’re talking like…nuclear blow-torch.

This week we just kinda make fun of the Hollywood Reporter for not mentioning Transformers when they totally should and Epson is getting into the fashion printing business because they finally realized that nobody prints on paper anymore.

Talking about machine morality is basically picking apart whether or not we’ll someday have to be nice to self-aware machines or demand that they be nice to us. Impossible? No, stupid. Guaranteed? No, stupid. Good idea to be prepared just in case? Damn right.

This week Hitachi is finally ready to send its snake/crawler hybrid robot into the heart of Fukushima Daiichi’s severely melted-down reactor #1, and a Japanese booze maker that owns an American booze maker wants to get cozier and it’s kind of funny.

This week it appears that Kyocera is (allegedly) thriving in the UK printer market (paper, not 3D), and Toyota has decided that racin’ and jumpin’ and stuff is good for business after all. COME ONE AND ALL AND READ THE GODDAMN JTFF!

The Appalachian OnlineArtificial intelligence may take your job out of schoolThe Appalachian OnlineSputnik News University of Oxford associate professor Michael Osborne predicts almost half of the working population will be replaced by non-human workers – artificial intelligence – in the foreseeable future. This means not only blue-collar work, but ...

NBC Bay Area (blog)Artificial Intelligence Could Steal Your JobNBC Bay Area (blog)Sentient Technologies, which has garnered $144 million in funding, may have the largest investment in artificial intelligence -- and it's creating software to take over your job in health care, law, insurance and more. "AI to us is augmenting human ...

Machine learning, artificial intelligence ... transforming how assets are managedForexLiveHere's an article on how Machine learning, artificial intelligence and other technological advances are transforming how pensions, endowments, sovereign funds and other institutions manage their assets. It might be an interesting read ahead of the ...

CNBCHow CEOs can outwit artificial intelligenceCNBCMy 10-year-old daughter recently made a statement as we drove to her piano class the other day that's going to be on the minds of CEOs and discussed in boardrooms soon, if not already: "If there is artificial intelligence, then we won't need to think ...Artificial intelligencePakistan Observerall 2 news […]

ForbesArtificial Intelligence Could Have Prevented The Germanwings CrashForbesNo level of security screening short of mind-reading could have prevented the crash of Germanwings flight 9525. But what can be done? The New York Times editorial today calls for the American standard that requires two crew members be in the cockpit at ...

Daily MailApple co-founder on artificial intelligence: 'The future is scary and very bad ...Washington Post (blog)The Super Rich Technologists Making Dire Predictions About Artificial Intelligence club gained another fear-mongering member this week: Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak. In an interview with the Australian Financial Review, Wozniak joined original club ...Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak has no doubt artificial […]

Elon Musk, Neil deGrasse Tyson laugh about artificial intelligence turning the ...Washington Post (blog)Elon Musk has already ignited a debate over the dangers of artificial intelligence. The chief executive of Tesla and SpaceX has called it humanity's greatest threat, and something even more dangerous than nuclear weapons. Musk publicly hasn't offered a ...and more »

blogs.hbr.org (blog)Artificial Intelligence Is Almost Ready for Businessblogs.hbr.org (blog)Artificial Intelligence (AI) is an idea that has oscillated through many hype cycles over many years, as scientists and sci-fi visionaries have declared the imminent arrival of thinking machines. But it seems we're now at an actual tipping point. AI ...

Irish TimesGoogle's Eric Schmidt downplays fears over artificial intelligenceWashington Post (blog)AUSTIN — Arguably the most alarming part of concerns over artificial intelligence's potential to end human civilization is the voices that are speaking out. Proven technology visionaries — from Bill Gates to Elon Musk and Stephen Hawking — have ...Artificial intelligence not a threat, SXSW […]

Yahoo TechWhy Artificial Intelligence Is Going to Look Like a Smartphone KeyboardYahoo Tech"The future of artificial intelligence is autocorrect," Ben Medlock, the co-founder at SwiftKey was saying. We were at a dinner during South by Southwest, hosted by SwiftKey and Evernote, and the discussion had turned to the standard nerd debate: When ...